Belfast, Maine -

BELFAST – Aarhus Gallery digs deep to bring you the unusual, provocative and stratagraphical ceramic works of guest artist Jonathan Mess, from August 3rd through August 29th. Please join us for an opening reception from 5-8pm on Friday, August 6th.

Was it Carl Sagan who said, â€ťNothing brings us back down to earth like a gorgeous eighty pound slab of geologic strata rendered in cast ceramic and voluptuous dripping glazes like so many billions of squashed petit fours.â€ť Maybe it wasnâ€™t Carl, but someone should have….Jonathan Mess puts it this way: Clay is an important material because I can literally use the earthâ€™s crust as my medium. My recent work has involved several series that visually and metaphorically reference land, maps, strata, geology and geography… I have engineered and incorporated a low-waste system of making by using recycled clays, slop clay and cast-aside glazes, once-fired, unused, forgotten, discarded, cut-up, and broken work, found cardboard, and even mixing clay that falls to the floor back into my system. I am interested in the physicality and reality of land, the evidence of time and age in the layers of earth, in contrast with contemporary human relationships with land through usage, manipulation, ownership, and division. I am concerned with our responsibility as humans living with the landâ€”collectively and individually.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Jonathan Mess studied art at the University of Toledo and received a BFA in studio art at the University of Montana. In 1999, Jonathan moved to the western foothills of Maine, where he taught art at Leavitt Area High School. In 2004, he was commissioned to create a major installation at the Bates Mill Complex for the Governor’s Conference on the Creative Economy. Looking for a new challenge, Jonathan left Maine in 2006 to pursue an MFA at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He completed his degree in May of 2008 and returned to Maine, this time to explore the MidCoast region while keeping a studio at the Fort Andross Mill in Brunswick. Jonathan currently teaches art at Lincoln Academy in Newcastle.

Also on display, betwixt and between, will be the worldly works of Ă…arhusians, Ingrid Ellison, Annadeene Fowler, Kevin Johnson, Mark Kelly, Richard Mann, Abbie Read, Wesley Reddick and Willy Reddick.

Aarhus Gallery is located at 50 Main St. Belfast, and open daily 10am-6pm and until 8pm Fridays in July and August as part of Belfastâ€™s Friday Night Art Walks. For more information and a slideshow of the current exhibit visit www.aarhusgallery.com or call 338-0001.